What have you done or what are you planning on doing with your wedding dress?

Meet Erin. She's done a terrific job of transforming her wedding dress into a reusable keeper. Not only has she had it re-structured to be a sexy cocktail dress, but she's added a unique element that I haven't seen anyone else do yet–she's re-coloured and added a hand-painted design.

I had the opportunity to interview Erin a little on her entire dress experience from purchase, to wedding day, to finished cocktail dress.

These days, you'd have to live under a rock to miss the Mad Men fashion discussion. Costume designer Janie Bryant--who combines vintage and hand-created period clothing for the characters of the 1960s advertising world--has been credited with changing the face of late-2000s fashion, and it isn't a stretch. Recent runways have featured full skirts and nipped waists and shifts that celebrate women's curves, shedding modern light on dressing up.

But for all the focus on buttoned-up, ladylike splendor, there's at least one woman highlighting the fun of Mad Men's fashion, too.

Freelance illustrator and designer Dyna Moe (depicted in the self-portrait on the right) started inking kitschy Mad Men illustrations when actor Rich Sommer, who plays Harry Crane on the show, asked Moe to create a Christmas card. She decided to mock the advertising illustration of the era, and pressed on with it, illustrating a scene from every episode and posting them all on Flickr. (She was also behind the popular Mad Men Yourself avatar). She drew for three seasons, and last month, Penguin culled Moe's illustrations, along with era-related features, for Mad Men: The Illustrated World.

Perfect timing! I just came across this wedding from one of my photographer's (friend & client), Micah Williams who is located in Atlanta, Georgia. For those of you thinking about a Fall wedding, I adored some of the simple ideas and colour palettes that made up this wedding.

I realize these aren't scary carved or painted pumpkins, but they still remind me of Halloween. I love them! This was the entrance to the farm where the wedding was held.

Happy Halloween! We hope this year's Halloween is a colorful one.

To make it a colorful Halloween here on COLOURlovers post your Halloween inspired patterns and palettes in the comments.

Halloween Patterns

This is a complemetary post to "30 Years of the Most Colorful Hats in Fashion" about legendary milliner Stephen Jones.

Original Pattern By: AimtheDi

This year, legendary milliner Stephen Jones will celebrate the 30th anniversary of his design house, Stephen Jones Millinery.  To commemorate the event, Antwerp's Mode Museum is hosting "Stephen Jones & The Accent of Fashion," a comprehensive exhibition of Jones' hats and a look at his career, which has included partnerships with Jean Paul Gaultier, Comme des Garçons, John Galliano, Christian Dior and Marc Jacobs.

[Clockwise from top left: KY, 2010; Blase, 2004; Northern Lights, 2002; The Cabin, 2008]

Today, we unite with blogs acorss the world to focus the conversation on one topic, Water.

We have plenty of love to give to those who are without a clean, reliable source of water (nearly one billion), and little patience for the polluting of our water supplies, especially contamination generated by the distressing acceptance of bottled 'designer' water.

Below you will find a few resources where you can find out more about our water woes, along with inspiration from some of our water related posts and water inspired patterns form the library. Add your color sense in the comments to keep the conversation going.

Resources:

Why Water? | Treehugger 1 & 2 | Charity: Water | Water.org | Unwater.org | Water Advocates

Inspiration

The Colors Of Shorebreak By Clark Little

Seattle designer Chrissy Wai-Ching has a truly global background. With Puerto Rican, Chinese and English roots and time spent living in international locales--including Hong Kong and Nice, France--it's no wonder the shapes and colors of the world's varied natural landscapes have become her biggest design influence.

Wai-Ching stops by COLOURlovers today to chat about those influences, the general aesthetic and the processes that go into the bridal wear, apparel and accessories of her line, Wai-Ching Clothing.

Tell us a little bit about your background, and how you came to design.

I've always been interested in fiber arts, I have many artists in my family, and my Puerto Rican grandmother is an avid quilter. I've made clothing for myself since high school, and went on to study Textile Technology and Fashion Design in Hong Kong.

Many of Prague's metro stations feature an identical design of repeating convex and concave shapes. Only the color scheme is different from station to station. The consistent texture and subltle color differences make each station quite stunning.

When it comes to matters of fashion here at COLOURlovers, member palettes and patterns are inspired by all sorts of items in a wardrobe--dresses, neckties, pants, handbags--the list goes on. But a few items see a little more love than the rest: suits, shirts, shoes and--as we'll see today--sweaters.

Whether called sweaters, jumpers, sweatshirts, pullovers, cardigans, jerseys or guernseys, sweaters have been an enduring aspect of popular fashion since the early 20th century. Of course, fishermen's sweaters--jerseys and guernseys--date to the 15th century, and athletes wore plenty of practical sweaters in the 19th century. But our idea of the everyday sweater had its start in American sportswear designs of the 1930s and 1940s. And since then, though its been given some new shapes (the recently ubiquitous open wrap cardigan, for one), the sweater has remained largely the same, both in commercial ideology and in popularity. A 1971 TIME magazine article on the sweater, at least, feels much like what a similar article would today:

[Neiman, photo by Chris Bergh; Abotanicity, photo by Melissa McClain]